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"They Fell While Gallantly Defending a Just and Holy Cause:" The Dead of the...
Currier and Ives' Depiction of Fredericksburg[Library of Congress] The attack of Sturgis's division of the 9th Army Corps against Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, is not as well...
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At Long Last. . .A Regimental History of the 96th Pennsylvania!
The 96th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War[Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Publishing Co., 2018]The 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, although perhaps the best known, was certainly not...
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"Distressing Occurrence:" The Tragic, Untimely Death of Sergeant Samuel...
Samuel Clemens survived the very worst of the American Civil War, making it through all the trying campaigns and hellish fights in which the 48th Pennsylvania was engaged, though certainly not...
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"A Good Man Gone:" The Story of Private John C. Cole, of Pottsville: Husband,...
John Cole was forty-four years old in the spring of 1864; a shoemaker from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, who was able to comfortably provide for his family. He had been married already for seventeen...
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Faithful to Every Duty: The Life and Death of Lieutenant Henry Clay Jackson,...
Lieutenant Henry Clay Jackson(Courtesy of Ronn Palm; Museum of Civil War Images) Spring 1861. Twenty-four-year-old Henry Clay Jackson, from St. Clair, in the coal region of Schuylkill County,...
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A Sad End to the Life of Private William Fitzpatrick, Company C, 48th...
By mid-January 1871, newspapers across Pennsylvania were running Mary Fitzpatrick's desperate plea.She needed help finding her son, William, who, on December 5, 1870, vanished from her home in...
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Schuylkill County's African-American Civil War Soldiers: A Roster
The ranks of the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry were composed primarily of Schuylkill County men. So, too, were the ranks of the 96th Pennsylvania, as well as several companies of the 50th...
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The Last of the 48th: Private Charles Washington Horn
Seventy-eight years ago this week--on August 4, 1941--Charles Washington Horn, the last surviving soldier of the 48th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry, passed away. Charles Washington HornLast...
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Stabbed To Death In Silver Creek: The Murder Of A Civil War Soldier
If not one of the most tragic, then at least it was one of the saddest stories in the history of the 48th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry. One of its soldiers, at home on furlough, murdered in...
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A Great Discovery In An Antique Store: John Dechant: Sergeant Major, 48th...
You just never know what you might find. . .Recently, a friend of mine named Britt was exploring an antique store in Frederick, Maryland. Arriving at a stack of old cabinet cards, he examined each one,...
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Soldier Snapshot: Private Elias Britton, Co. A (1832-1892)
Private Elias Britton[Hoptak Collection] Elias Britton survived two battle wounds as well as a wartime illness, only to die in a work-related accident in 1892. * * * * * * * *Britton served throughout...
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"May God Forbid Any Of You Or Yours Should Ever Have To Endure, Or Do As...
Orlando Baum's Cabinet Card[Hoptak Collection] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Sometime in the late 1880s, Civil War veteran H. Orlando Baum, still a young man now in his early forties,...
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Are These Photographs Of The Same 48th Pennsylvania Soldier? Help Me Identify...
Regular readers of my blog know that I often ask for your help in identifying "unidentified" images of 48th Pennsylvania soldiers. Soon, I will be posting an update about one such quest launched...
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"Youths In Our Great Civil War:" Regimental Historian Joe Gould Remembers...
Having studied the 48th Pennsylvania for well more than two decades, just yesterday I stumbled upon an interesting account about some of the youngest soldiers in the regiment, one that I had never...
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A Biographical Portrait of General James Nagle: Schuylkill County's Foremost...
General James NaglePictured Holding the Sword PresentedUpon His Return Home from the Mexican Warin 1848(Library of Congress)James Nagle, born on this date in 1822, was the quintessential...
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A "Brave and Most Gallant Soldier:" Lewis Martin--First Defender and Major,...
Lewis Martin was among the first volunteers for the Union. A civil engineer, he was elected surveyor of Schuylkill County just a few years before the outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861....
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The Story of the Allison Brothers Told In July 2020 Issue of "America's Civil...
Thank you to America's Civil War for featuring the story of Agnes Allison and her sons in the July 2020 issue. Please read about this story of service and sacrifice: A Mother's Sacrifice
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Soldier Story: Corporal Richard C. Ryan, Company C, 48th Pennsylvania Infantry
I usually check my email just once a day, almost always early in the morning. While most days the only messages I receive are from stores or companies offering some kind of special savings deal, every...
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A "New" Face of the Forty-Eighth: Corporal Henry W. Krater, Company I
Although it does not happen all too often, every now and then, I get to see a "new" face of the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry. A few weeks ago, was one of those "every now and then" moments. Checking my...
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Colorized Photographs of 48th Pennsylvania Soldiers
Colorized Image of Major Joseph Gilmour48th PALast night, a number of my friends in the Civil War world shared on their social media accounts photographs of historical figures from the Civil War Era...
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A New Headstone for Colonel Gowen
I was only at Saint Luke's Episcopal Graveyard in Germantown, Pennsylvania, once, and this was many, many years ago. I was there to locate the grave of George Washington Gowen, the 48th Pennsylvania's...
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Faces of the 48th: Clay W. Evans--129th PA; Company G, 48th PA; and 1st Lt....
Clay W. Evans(Photographed in 1865 as Lieutenant, 31st USCT) John D. Hoptak CollectionI always enjoy seeing a "new" face of the 48th, and just a few days ago, my friend Britt alerted me to a "new"...
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"He Was A Thoroughly Good Soldier, And Always A Worthy, Honorable Man:" The...
It was late summer, 1889, and Rebecca Focht was worried. She hadn't seen, nor even heard from her son, Charles, for several months, and was anxious to know not only where he was but especially the...
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Faces of the 48th: Richard Martin Jones: From Sergeant to Lieutenant Colonel
Richard Martin Jones began the war as a sergeant in the ranks of Company G, 48th Pennsylvania, and ended it as the regiment's second-in-command, or lieutenant-colonel. Lieutenant Colonel Richard Martin...
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Soldier Story: Private William Straw, Musician/Fifer, Company K, 48th...
I always enjoy seeing a 'new' face of the 48th Pennsylvania, an image, that is, one of its soldiers I had never before seen, and thanks to Norman Gasbarro at Civil War Blog and to the descendants of a...
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